'\"
'\" Copyright (c) 2003-2004 Paul H Alfille, MD
'\" (palfille@earthlink.net)
'\"
'\" Program manual page for the OWFS -- 1-wire filesystem package
'\" Based on Dallas Semiconductor, Inc's datasheets, and trial and error.
'\"
'\" Free for all use. No waranty. None. Use at your own risk.
'\" $Id: description,v 1.3 2007/12/17 00:41:01 alfille Exp $
'\"
.SS 1-Wire
.I 1-wire 
is a wiring protocol and series of devices designed and manufactured
by Dallas SemicondUctor, Inc. The bus is a low-power low-speed low-connector
scheme where the data line can also provide power.
.PP
Each device is uniquely unalterably numbered during manufacture. There is a wide variety
of devices, including memory, sensors (humidity, temperature, voltage,
contact, current), switches, timers and data loggers. More complex devices (like
thermocouple sensors) can be built with these basic devices. There are also
1-wire devices that have encryption included.
.PP
The 1-wire bus is accessed via one of a number of serial, parallel, i2c, network or USB
adapters.
.SS OWFS design
.I OWFS
is a suite of programs that fundementally make the 1-wire bus and its
devices easily accessible. The underlying priciple is to create a virtual
filesystem, with the unique ID being the directory, and the individual
properties of the device files.
.PP
There is optional data caching to improved performance, but possible
confusion over stale data.
